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Bulletin 262

13 February 2023

Welcome to our Early Years and Childcare bulletin. Previous bulletins are available at: Cheshire East Early years and Childcare Bulletin

Covid-19

Latest Covid Figures for Cheshire East

The Covid figures are now being updated on a less frequent basis - for the latest figures see the link below.

Business Support

Free Early Education Entitlement Contracts

Contracts for financial year 2023/24 will be issued electronically via DocuSign. To avoid any delays in receiving your contract, please log onto the Provider Portal and check the staff details provided. Each setting is required to provide the name and email address for the following members of staff:

• Designated Safeguarding Lead
• Free Entitlement Contract Signatory
• Free Entitlement Administrator
• Manager
• SENCo

Please follow the guidance notes to submit your staff details. Childminders, please ensure your Free Entitlement Contract Signatory email and Free Entitlement Administrator addresses are correct. This can be checked by logging onto the Provider Portal and clicking on the Staff tab from the homepage.

Free Early Education Entitlement – Provider Portal Closed

The Provider Portal is now closed for the Spring Term data entry. Please email any adjustments/additions to the FEEE Team on FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk giving full details including parent details, DOB’s and start dates.

Free Early Education Entitlement – FEEE Briefing

There will be 2 FEEE Briefings via Microsoft Teams on Thursday 16 March 2023. The sessions will be held at 2pm or 6.30pm.

These Briefings are aimed at both new providers and those providers who would like a refresher.  They are due to last around 1 hour and will give you the opportunity to meet the Team as well as to ask any questions you may have. We would recommend that at least 2 people, where possible, join so that there is back-up in case of illness when adding data to the Portal.

To book onto one of these sessions, please go to the Online Shop below to book your place. These Briefings are free of charge.

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements

Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements: Focus on...

Do you have fresh drinking water available and accessible to children at all times? (EYFS 3.48)

Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass is live in early years settings across Cheshire East. The aim of Operation Encompass is to enable staff in early years settings to have timely information about all police attended incidents of domestic abuse in a child’s home. There is further information and online training on Home : Operation Encompass If you have not been able to attend the Cheshire East briefings please contact us for a recording of the webinar. Please also make sure that you have updated your Key Adults details onto the Provider Portal. Instructions are available on the ‘Staff contact details guidance’ document under the ‘Additional FEEE documents’ heading.

Department for Education

Stronger Practice Hubs Phase 2 Recruitment and information webinars

NCB are pleased to announce that Phase 2 recruitment for Stronger Practice Hubs is now open.

• The NCB are taking a more targeted approach for Phase 2, recruiting six new hubs in six regions; taking into account the first 12 Stronger Practice Hubs which were appointed in November 2022. 
• The local authority is within a region that is eligible to apply in Phase 2 – but please double check pages 16 -19 on the FAQ document on the NCB website, as in some instances only part of the area might be eligible.
• The NCB would really value your support to encourage strong settings in your area to apply to be a Stronger Practice Hub, if this is something you feel able to do. This is a really exciting and transformative programme to be involved in, with the opportunity to make a difference to early years practice across local areas.

All the information and documents relating to Phase 2 recruitment can be found on the NCB website. There is also a webinar for settings:

For settings in the eligible areas: Thursday 23^rd February from 11.00 – 1.00

Please book using the Eventbrite link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/early-years-stronger-practice-hubs-webinar-for-early-years-settings-tickets-539414983737

Apply for support from the Department for Education Childminder Mentor programme

The Department for Education (DfE) is offering a programme of support for childminders across England, from May 2023 until July 2024. The Childminder mentor programme is focused on supporting childminders to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youngest and most disadvantaged children.

By joining this programme, you will receive support from experienced early years practitioners who have at least three years' experience as a childminder or supporting childminders, in the roles of Area Lead and Mentor.

The support is free and available across England.

You will also have the opportunity to network with other childminders in your area who are part of the programme and also the Department for education, local authorities and other early years providers.

To be eligible to receive support from the DfE Childminder Mentor programme, childminders must currently be providing childcare to children aged between 0-5 (to at least one child).

If you are interested in receiving support, please see the link below and register by 17 February 2023.

EYFS Learning and Development

World Book Day Tokens

World Book Day is on Thursday 2 March 2023.

You can order your Book Tokens now by emailing frances.lennon@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk . Please make sure that you include your contact phone number when you request your World Book Day tokens.

Early Years Evidence Store

Developed to support the DfE’s Stronger Practice Hubs programme, the Evidence Store has been designed to support Stronger Practice Hubs work with early years providers, but it can be used by everyone working in the early years.

The Early Years Evidence Store is a summary of evidence-informed approaches to help educators to understand and reflect on their practice. The approaches are illustrated with practices that typically make-up the approach and a range of examples of what these might look like in practice.

The Evidence Store currently includes two key themes - Communication and language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. These areas have been prioritised due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s learning and experiences in these areas. More themes will be added over time.

The Princess of Wales launches "Shaping Us" Campaign to raise awareness of the unique importance of early childhood

“Shaping Us” is a major new awareness-raising campaign from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which aims to increase public understanding of the crucial importance of the first five years of life.

Spearheaded by The Princess of Wales, with support from a range of high-profile figures from the world of media, music, science and sports, the campaign officially launched on Tuesday 31^st January with the release of a short animation film.

In the film, we see how a little girl, Layla, develops from pregnancy to age five and how she is shaped by her interactions with the people and environment around her. It will appear on Piccadilly Lights at Piccadilly Circus and will be screened in cinemas across the UK from Friday. You can watch the film here.

The campaign launches as the Centre for Early Childhood released new data on public understanding of child development which shows around one in three (36%) adults report knowing just a little or nothing about how children develop in their early childhood. The long-term ambition is to transform public awareness of this issue over the coming months and years.

Rhyme Time Roadshows

SEND

Cheshire East Chatters Talking Walk-in dates for Parents

Please share the information below with parents. The Talking Walk-in's are opportunities for parents to speak with a Speech and Language Therapist to receive advice and guidance to support their child at home.

Cheshire East Chatters Best Practice

Calling all Early Years settings! Do you use songs and rhymes in a creative and original way to support children's communication skills? Would you be willing to share your ideas with other settings across Cheshire East? Cheshire East Chatters is looking for settings to showcase their best practice at our Early Language Lead Networks in March.   If you are interested in this opportunity to promote all the great work you do, please contact us on cechatters@mcht.nhs.uk.

Parenting Journey

Continuous Professional Development

Department for Education launches early years child development training

The Department for Education has launched a free online Early years child development training course aimed at childminders, nursery practitioners and nursery managers.

The flexible online training has been developed in consultation with early years experts and provides a greater understanding of child development.

The training:

• gives practical advice for supporting children in early years settings
• includes opportunities to reflect on your practice
• reinforces your understanding through learning check questions and tests
• allows you to pause and restart the training at any time
• offers the chance to download certificates of achievement for each module

The first 4 modules of the training are available now. Further modules will be added throughout 2023.

Spring Term Training

Ofsted - Preparing for your Inspection/Owners and Managers network 15-Feb-23 9.30am-11.45am on Teams

**LAST CHANCE TO BOOK**

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from 2 HM Ofsted Inspectors who will deliver inspection feedback and address some key challenges faced in Early Years including advice on how leaders and practitioners may articulate and deliver curriculum intent and implementation, recruitment difficulties and the impact on children’s learning and development and the importance of leading good quality practice. During the second half of the session, updates from the Cheshire East Early Years team will be delivered including the launch of the new EY training hub and our upcoming Rhymetime Roadshows.

Let’s Talk Twos – ‘dealing with feelings’ – 15-Feb-23 1.30pm or 6.30pm and 17-Feb-23 9.30am on Teams

**LAST CHANCE TO BOOK**

Join us as we take a roller-coaster ride into the emotional world of 2-year-olds and explore ways to support children who are experiencing strong emotions. What does co-regulation look like in your setting? Discuss how to make sure we are creating an emotional environment that’s right for 2’s . Find out how health visitors can help us work with parents to support children’s emotions at home.

DSL Cluster – 28-Feb-23 9.30am or 6.30pm on Teams

Attendance at each termly cluster is highly recommended to keep your safeguarding knowledge and skills up to date. One of our Locality Support Officers will be talking about Early Help Assessments, as well as our usual updates. At these meetings there will be opportunities for discussion with other leads, networking, sharing of effective practice/materials, input from other agencies, updates on new legislation/initiatives etc.

Don't Forget!

FEEE – Afghan and Ukrainian children

Afghan and Ukrainian children aged 2, 3 and 4 years old living in Cheshire East are entitled to 15 hours early education irrespective of the immigration status of the child or their parent(s). To claim FEEE funding for children from Afghanistan or Ukraine, please add their details to the Provider Portal in the usual way. Should the Provider Portal be closed, please email the FEEE Team (FEEE@cheshireeast.gov.uk) who will update your funding claim.

In addition, please also complete the short form (link below), enabling the authority to monitor take-up of the free entitlement.  Please complete this form each time an Afghan or Ukrainian child starts or leaves your setting. If any Afghan or Ukrainian children currently attend your setting, please retrospectively complete this form and continue to use the form as you have any new starters or leavers.

https://forms.office.com/r/RN5KbkKrzL